Virtual Meets are just about my favorite way to use the data in the MileSplit database. This report takes the best marks for every athlete on the teams you select, and then scores those like a normal track meet. You get a quick summary of the top athletes in each event, and also get a projected team score. It's a great way to get an overview of the best match-ups AND the deepest teams, all in one place. And a Virtual Meet is highly customizable: you can change events, change years, focus on specific class years, add or remove specific athletes, and more! To customize the reports you see below, subscribers can click on the Full Report links.
Today we've got three different versions of a Virtual Meet using the teams entered in this weekend's Redondo Nike Track Festival. The first two slides have put together the best times from this season for each athlete; the middle two are drawing from 2017 outdoor marks using only returning athletes; and the last two pull from the winter season that we just finished.
NOTE: Virtual Meets do have some limitations. They take all the top marks for a particular athlete, and if there are more than four events to draw from the computer has to decide which four to include. They also don't reflect the exact entries for a particular meet - so if an athlete is sitting out some of their "normal" events to focus on one or two, or is trying a new event, that won't be reflected. Also, in the case of a meet like Redondo, we couldn't include the DMR in the current reports because there aren't enough times in the database for that event to make it worthwhile (although I DID include that race in the virtual using winter season times).
All of this is why we will also have a written preview up first thing Friday morning! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this Virtual Meet. And don't forget we'll be on-site at Redondo Friday and Saturday, streaming the meet live and updating you on the top performances through Twitter!